Cabinet door hinge

ABSTRACT

The pivotally interengaged elements of a hinge have a configuration providing a 270* sector of swing for a door overlying the outer edges of a cabinet structure. This configuration places the mounting portions of the hinge elements against the inner surfaces of the door and the cabinet, respectively, for concealment.

United States Patent Kiraly May 6, 1975 [54] CABINET DOOR HINGE FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS i 1 lflvenwri Joseph Louis Kiraly, 18190 Love" 30,679 1/1904 Germany l6/l62 R pring Lake, Mich. 49 56 532,788 111941 United Kingdom l6/l35 [22] Filed: July 25, 1973 Primary ExaminerPaul R. Gilliam PP N04 382,572 Assistant Examiner-Doris L. Troutman Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Glenn B. Morse [52] US. Cl. 16/128 [51] Int. Cl E05d 9/00 [57] ABSTRACT [58] Field of Search 2 2 The pivotally interengaged elements of a hinge have a configuration providing a 270 sector of swing for a References Cited door overlying the outer edges of a cab1net structure. This configuratlon places the mounting portions of the UNITED STATES PATENTS hinge elements against the inner surfaces of the door 1,821,606 9/193! Anderson l6/i35 and the cabinet, respectively, for concealment. 2,624,067 l/l953 Tasseli 5/135 3,564,771 2 1971 Reynolds 49/401 3 Chums, 6 Drawmg Flsllres CABINET DOOR HINGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Hinges for such structures as kitchen cabinets are normally relatively light duty, and are designed primarily for concealment, appearance of the exposed portions, and minimum manufacturing and installation cost. The latter is minimized by eliminating the recessing of the surfaces of the door and cabinet to receive the hinge elements in a flush-mounted condition. A hinge installation for a given cabinet door can either consist of two or more pairs of pivotally interengaged elements, or the hinge may be continuous in what is commonly refered to as a piano hinge" extending along a major portion of the length of the edge of the door.

It is common practice to construct kitchen cabinets as an extension outward from the wall on which they are mounted. It is often desirable to hinge a door overlying the edges of the panels forming the cabinet structure at one of the edges at the complete unit. Most door hinges are limited in freedom of articulation in such cases to an opening swing of approximately 180. When the door is hinged at the edge of the cabinet unit, this obviously leaves the door extending out into the room where it interferes with the traffic and other doors. Such an arrangement also presents the strong probabil ity that sooner or later the door will be forced beyond its normal 180 freedom, and torn loose from its mounting as it is forced to swing in the direction of the side of the cabinet.

Hinges have also been adapted to place the axis of the door swing at a remote point from the hinge mounting. This type of hinge is often used where doors must close into a fitted relationship with peripherally surrounding structure. The purpose of the present invention is to incorporate the principle of the remote-axis hinge into a unit providing the concealment and low cost required of the cabinet hinge, the objective being a 270 sector of swing for the door.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The hinge leaves of the present invention are pin connected outside the peripheral confines of the closed cabinet structure and include interdigitated mounting portions. Each of the interdigitated mounting portions include a proximal section constituting a planar extension from the hinge axis which merges with a perpendicularly related distal section. The distal sections of one of the hinge portions are secured in facing or abutting relation to the front edge of a cabinet side panel and the proximal sections of the other of the hinge portions are secured in facing or abutting relation to a door side edge to thereby define a hinge structure inherently capable of permitting 270 door opening movement. In the closed position of the door the mutually perpendicular proximal and distal sections are respectively coplanar to thereby present a single hinge metal thickness between the door and cabinet. The visual appearance of the closed cabinet is thus enhanced without the necessity of resorting to additional woodworking operations upon the cabinet structure to avoid exposing a double or greater hinge metal thickness.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a top view of a door connected to the side panel of a cabinet structure by a hinge embodying this invention, with the dotted lines showing the door in the fully open position. 2

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the interengaged hinge elements in a partially open relationship.

FIG. 3 is a view of the preferred blank configuration from which both of the hinged elements are made from a common strip of sheet metal.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of a cabinet and door assembly incorporating the hinge of the present invention.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are fragmentary sectional views, taken along the lines 55 and 66, respectively, of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 is fragmentarily illustrated a cabinet side panel 10 to which a cabinet door 12 is hinged for 270 movement between the closed solid, and open dotted, line positions of FIG. 1 through the intermediary of hinge assembly 14. Hinge assembly 14 comprises a pair of hinge leaves 16, 18 having interdigitated mounting portions 20, 22 terminating in pintle rolls 24 through which pintle pin 26 extends as best illustrated in FIG. 2. Each of the hinge leaf mounting portions 20, 22 include proximal leaf sections 28, 30 constituting planar extensions from the hinge axis defined by pintle pin 26 and planar, perpendicularly related distal leaf sections 32, 34.

Hinge leaf I6 is adapted to be mounted to cabinet side panel 10 with the front edge 36 of side panel 10 abutted against the distal leaf sections 32 while hinge leaf 18 is adapted for securement to door 12 with a door side edge 38 abutted against proximal leaf sections 30. The spaced mounting portions 22 of hinge leaf 18 are interconnected by a planar extension 40 of the distal leaf sections 34 while the mounting portions 20 of hinge leaf 16 are continuous with a perpendicularly related extension 42. The cutouts 44 defining the spaced mounting portions 20 of hinge leaf 16 are sized to receive the spaced proximal and distal sections of mounting portions 22 in respective coplanar relationship with the proximal and distal sections of mounting portions 20 in the door closed position of FIG. 1. The result of this construction is that the cabinet and door edges 36 and 38 to which the hinge assembly is mounted require no additional woodworking operations on the cut, planar side surfaces thereof to insure that only a single hinge metal thickness separates the cabinet and closed door while the positionment of the hinge axis, defined by pintle pin 26, outside the peripheral confines of the closed cabinet permits a door swing arc of 270.

Each of the proximal leaf sections 30 of hinge leaf 18 includes door edge mounting apertures 46 while it is the distal leaf sections 32 of hinge leaf 16 that are apertured as at 48 to receive appropriate fasteners 50. Hinge leaf extensions 40 and 42 may also include fastener receiving apertures for additional securement to the inside of the door and the inside of cabinet side panel 10, respectively.

FIG. 3 illustrates the layout of a blank from which both the hinge leaves 16 and 18 may be formed. The blank 52 may be sheared along the meandering line 54 to produce the blanks for the hinge elements 16 and I8. The initial separation of the strip 52 to produce the meandering sheared line 54 should be followed by a secondary shearing or shaving operation to establish the necessary operating clearance between the hinge leaves 16 and 18. After separation into two element blanks sheared for clearance, the portions of the blank are bent into the angular configuration and rolled by conventional die procedures to form the pintle roll bearing portions. [f the hinge elements are to be secured with screws, the holes are preferably pierced when the material is in the flat condition followed by a subsequent beveling operation for the reception of flat-headed screws as shown in FIG. 1.

I claim:

1. In combination with a cabinet having an open front bounded in part by opposed cabinet side panels having from edges; a cabinet door having a side edge; hinge assembly means mounting said door for movement between a cabinet closing position overlying the front edges of said side panels and an open position displaced 270 therefrom; said hinge assembly means comprising a pair of pin connected hinge leaves having interdigitated mounting portions; each said mounting portion including a pintle roll integral with planar, mutually perpendicular, proximal and distal leaf sections; fastener means securing the front edge of one of said cabinet side panels in facing relation to said distal sections of one of said hinge leaf mounting portions; fastener means securing said cabinet door side edge in facing relation to said proximal sections of the other of said hinge leaf mounting portions; a pintle pin extending through said pintle rolls and mounting said other hinge leaf mounting portion and door for pivotal movement between a closed position defined by the respective coplanar positionment of said proximal and distal leaf sections and an open position displaced 270 therefrom.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein said pintle pin lies outside the peripheral confines of the closed cabinet combination.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said front edge of said one of said cabinet side panels and said cabinet door side edge each comprise a continuous planar surface. 

1. In combination with a cabinet having an open Front bounded in part by opposed cabinet side panels having front edges; a cabinet door having a side edge; hinge assembly means mounting said door for movement between a cabinet closing position overlying the front edges of said side panels and an open position displaced 270* therefrom; said hinge assembly means comprising a pair of pin connected hinge leaves having interdigitated mounting portions; each said mounting portion including a pintle roll integral with planar, mutually perpendicular, proximal and distal leaf sections; fastener means securing the front edge of one of said cabinet side panels in facing relation to said distal sections of one of said hinge leaf mounting portions; fastener means securing said cabinet door side edge in facing relation to said proximal sections of the other of said hinge leaf mounting portions; a pintle pin extending through said pintle rolls and mounting said other hinge leaf mounting portion and door for pivotal movement between a closed position defined by the respective coplanar positionment of said proximal and distal leaf sections and an open position displaced 270* therefrom.
 2. The combination of claim 1 wherein said pintle pin lies outside the peripheral confines of the closed cabinet combination.
 3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said front edge of said one of said cabinet side panels and said cabinet door side edge each comprise a continuous planar surface. 